Influence of Energy Ratio of Hybrid Heat Source on Residual Stress Distribution of 7A52 Aluminum Alloy VPPA-MIG Hybrid Welding

Variable Polarity Plasma Arc-Metal Inert Gas (VPPA-MIG) welding process is a new hybrid welding process with broad application prospects for aluminum alloy structure in the fields of aerospace manufacturing, transportation and others. The heat source of the hybrid welding process is composed of VPPA heat source and MIG heat source. When the total input energy of VPPA-MIG hybrid heat source is constant, the different energy ratio of VPPA arc and MIG arc affects not only the forming effect of hybrid weld, but also the stress distribution of hybrid welding joint. Hole-drilling method was used to analyze the influence of the ratio of VPPA and MIG arc energy on the distribution of welding residual stress in the process of 10 mm 7A52 aluminum alloy VPPA-MIG hybrid welding. The results show that the peak magnitude of hybrid welding residual stress increases with the increase of the ratio of VPPA arc energy. Considering the appearance of weld forming, VPPA-MIG hybrid welding parameters of 7A52 aluminum alloy are optimized on the basis of the distribution characteristic of residual stress. When the ratio of VPPA arc energy is selected between 35% and 40%, the peak magnitude of transverse residual stress is (in the direction vertical to the weld) no more than 92.0 MPa, and the peak magnitude of longitudinal residual stress(in the direction parallel to the weld) is no more than 234.3 MPa. It shows that the VPPA-MIG hybrid welding with optimized parameters can not only produce weld joint with satisfied macroscopic appearance, but also avoid high peak magnitude of residual stress.